The We Help You Legal Blog

Customer Service Interaction: Today, I took in a Living Trust. We reviewed the questionnaire and scheduled him for the following week. I had a notary waiting that over heard our interaction, who then wanted to inquire about LT. I had a second notary come in, who was happy to wait as I took in a […]

Recently I made the decision to advertise on #knzramfm in #bakersfield. As I was waiting to meet with my representative I met a lady in the waiting room. We got to talking and after I mentioned what I did, she began to tell me a story about her situation. Basically what happened is her husband recently passed away and they didn’t have a will or a #livingtrust. This was their second marriage for both of them and he had kids from his previous relationship.

Was in my #santamaria office wrapping up the day and in comes three potential customers. They had with them a Living Trust binder and tons of questions. It was a sister, brother and the brother’s wife. The siblings father passed away years ago and their mother just recently passed away. So, they were trying to administer their trust by themselves. Apparently, they had already sold a piece of property and used realtors for the sale, but they still did not know much about what to do next with the remaining two properties and how to transfer them out of the trust and into their individual names. Luckily, I am knowledgeable at these types of matters. So, first thing is first, I need to see the last recorded #deed or last transfer document to ensure the real property was in fact funded into the trust properly. I had to do a search through #fidelitytitle and the deeds were no listed. Luckily, the sister found one of the deeds to the property and it did in fact appear to be titled into the parents’ trust correctly. The second piece of property we still are not 100% sure, so the customer is going to request it from the #CountyRecorder in #sanluisobispo (I assume it will be properly titled into the trust, but we have to make sure first). As for the first property discussed, two Affidavit of Death of Trustee documents will have to be prepared in addition to a deed transferring the property from the “Successor Trustees,” which happens to be the siblings as co-successor trustees, into the brother’s name. It is a fair simply process, but one that can be extremely daunting if the process and procedure is not familiar. At the end, the customers were extremely happy and although I still have to prepare the documents, my fees are going to be around $400 versus probably $2000+ with an attorney (their fees vary, but tend to be much, much more than ours). Also, this is a service that #legalzoom simply does not offer and is another example of how a retail face to face document preparation service is literally the best possible legal alternative to that of an online source or through the traditional legal model of using an attorney/lawyer (#attorney #lawyer). Lastly, both siblings are going to have me prepare a #livingtrust or #estateplan for them as they see the value and time/cost savings. We have been serving the #centralcoast of #california for years and are expanding to the #centralvalley in the city of #bakersfield in January 2015. #ILoveMyJob Do not hesitate to call or email with questions.

A couple came into the #sanluisobispo office and inquired about a Living Trusts and Estate Planning. Apparently, they had already visited my competition and were essentially comparing services. It appeared that they had quite a few questions written down on several sheets of paper, so I agreed to attempt to answer whatever questions they had and to hopefully earn their business. To start off, this couple is not married and is not domestic partners according to the laws of the State of California.

First there were legal secretaries, then there were legal assistants, paralegals, freelance paralegals, contract paralegals, independent paralegals, law clerks, and in 1998 document clerks. Today, the Business & Professions Code sets forth the requirements for paralegals, legal assistants and legal document assistants (LDAs).

A #LegalZoom blog recently asked the question is providing assistance with legal documents practicing law? In other words is document preparation unlicensed practice of law? It depends on your perspective I guess. There are legal scholars and attorneys that would say absolutely. And there are others in the legal community that say absolutely not.